Watch movement and case.



J.- W. RUSHTON. WATCH MOVEMENT AND CASE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 18, 1912.

Patented Feb. 16, 1915.

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rn 2 J M0 L/ witnesses A THE NORRIS PETERS CO.PHOT0'LITi-|10.v WASH/NCI'ON, D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN W. RUSHTON, OF WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO WALTI-IAIJI WATCH COMPANY, OF WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

WATCH MOVEMENT AND CASE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 16, 1915.

Application filed April 18, 1912. Serial No. 691,737.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN WV. RUsHToN, a citizen of the United States, and resident of 'Waltham, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in WVatch Movements and Cases, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to watch movements and cases therefor, and has particular reference to a new and improved means for fastening the movement in the case.

The principal end which I have sought in designing the present improvement has been to enable the case to be made light in weight without sacrificing protection to the watch movement or security in fastening the movement frame and case together. Where the cases are made of precious metal, the reduction in weight referred to efiects a material saving in cost. It may be said there fore that my invention has for its object to effect economies in the manufacture of precious metal watch cases, and to give at the same time added protection against injury to the delicate parts of the watch movement, and a more secure mode of fastening the movement in the case.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a rear elevation of a watch movement frame and its case assembled, with the rear covers removed. Fig. 2 is a central cross section of the frame and case. Fig. 3 is a section on line 33 of Fig. 1. Fig. a is a section of the ring which forms part of the means for securing the movement in the case. Fig. 5 is an elevation of the ring. Fig. 6 is a sectional detail on line 6-6 of Fig. 1. Fig. 7 is a perspective view of one of the fastening bolts. Fig. 8 is a detail view of a part of Fig. 3 showing the looking bolt in its retracted position.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in all the figures.

In the drawings 1 represents the front plate or pillar plate, and 2, 3, and 4: represent the back plates or bridges and the balance cook, the whole constituting the frame of a watch movement by which the pivots of the several wheels of the movement are supported. For the purposes ,of this description the plates 1, 2, 3, and a will be considered as a unit and will be referred to as the movement frame.

5 represents the annular central part of the watch case, which is called the case center and which has an internal annular recess or groove 7 bounded by side walls 8 and 9.

10 represents the back cover of the case and 11 the bezel to which is secured the crystal 12, and which with the crystal constitutes the front cover. The back cover and bezel are secured to the case center in any one of the modes now well known and commonly employed, in a manner permitting them to be opened or removed. As here shown they are snapped over external undercut shoulders 13 and 11, respectively, on the outer sides of the case center.

'15 represents a ring which fits around the movement frame and has an internal shoulder 16 and transverse openings or ports 17 The internal shoulder 16 is adapted to seat against the edge of the pillar plate, which projects somewhat beyond the outer boundaries of the bridges.

On the pillar plate in spaces between the bridges are mounted two or more fastening bolts 20 and 21 which are guided in the channels formed between the bridges, as shown in Fig. 1, and are adapted to project beyond the periphery of the movement frame. The shanks of these bolts are re oessed to admit the shanks of binding screws 22, which screws are threaded into the pillar plate with their heads overlying their respective bolt shanks, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3. The bolts are held in engagement with the screws by the confining walls of the bridges. Thus when the screws are loosened, it is possible to slide the bolts in or out, and the bolts may then be secured in either position by tightening the screws. When the head of the screw is wider than the channel containing the bolt one or the other of the bridges is recessed sufficiently to admit the screw head, as indicated in an exaggerated way in Fig. 1. This statement is made so that it will be clearly understood that the bolt heads pass between the bridges 2 and 3, and 2 and 4, respectively, without binding on either.

In assembling the watch movement frame in the case, the ring 15 is first placed about the frame and set so that its apertures 17 are in line with the channels of the bolts 20 and 21, such bolts being retracted. Then the frame is set into the case center from the back until the edge of the ring 15 comes toa bearing on the wall or shoulder 8 of the case center. This wall 8 extends farther inward than does the wall 9, and fits easily around the pillar plate. Then the bolts are projected through the holes in the ring into the recess 7 within the case center. The end of each bolt is beveled at 23 on the side that comes next to the wall 9 of the case center, so that the bolt will enter the recess 7 and have a wedging action against the wall'9 tending to force the edge of the ring against the wall 8. Another feature to be noted is that the bottoms 17 of the holes in the ring are slightly above the rear face of the pillar plate when the shoulders 16 and 19 engage the complemental shoulders of the bridges and pillar plate respectively. Thereby when the screws are tightened up the bolts bear against the said bottoms 17 and crowd shoulder 16 against the movement frame. It will be seen therefore that projection of the bolts clamps the ring against oppositely disposed shoulders in the case center, and tightening of the fastening screws upon the bolts secures the ring rigidly to the movement frame, whence the frame is immovably and securely connected to the case.

On the rear end of the ring is an annular shoulder 24 which provides means for securing in any desired way an inner back cover 25 extending over and protecting the delicate parts of the movement. This inner cover is secured to the movement frame through the ring 15, and is not directly connected to the case, nor is it properly any part of the case. On the contrary it is more properly a part of the movement frame. Since it is wholly supported by the movement frame it may be made as strong as necessary and will resist blows which might otherwise injure the movement, without applying any strain to the case. The latter being relieved of all necessity of protecting the movement against injury and serving only to furnish an ornamental exterior for the watch, may be made light and thin, thus saving material and reducing its cost.

It will be noted that the internal shoulders of the ring bear on the external shoulders of the movement frame plates, and that the end of the ring bears on the shoulder 8 of the case center in a direction parallel to the axis of the watch. The bolts and the clamping screws therefore apply pressure upon these bearing surfaces and serve to hold all the parts together. I term these bearings against which pressure is applied in an axial direction axial bearings in order to identify them and to distinguish them from the circumferential bearings of the ring, as to which there is no pressure and no function in securing the parts rigidly together.

The bolts serve as binders to bring the axial bearings of the movement pillar plate and of the case center into firm contact with the complemental bearings of the ring. In performing this function the bolts act as levers to which force is applied by the screws 22 to turn them about their fulcrum bearings on the ring so as to cause their outer ends to press on the internal face of the wall 9 of the case center. Un account of this function and mode of operation, I have given the bolts the name of lever binders; and because the ring 15 furnishes the fulcrum bearings for the bolts, I call the ring a fulcrum member.

I claim:

1. In a watch the combination of a case having a central part or case center with an internal recess, a watch movement plate fitting within said case center, a ring surrounding said plate having an axial bearing thereon and an axial bearing also on the case, a bolt carried by the plate and movable longitudinally into and out of the recess in the case center, having a bearing on the case center and a bearing at its opposite side on the ring, and means for drawing the inwardly extending portion of the bolt and the movement plate together, whereby the bearing of the ring on the movement plate and on the case center, and of the bolt on the case center are made firm.

2. In a watch the combination of a movement frame, a case center surrounding said frame and having an internal recess, a longitudinally movable bolt mounted on the movement frame and adapted to be projected therefrom into the recess of the case center and to be retracted from the same recess, a ring surrounding the frame and having an opening through which said bolt extends, one side of such opening being out of the plane of that surface of the movement frame which is next adjacent to the bolt, whereby such side constitutes a fulcrum for the bolt, and means for moving the inwardly projecting part of the bolt about such fulcrum transversely to the plane of said frame.

3. The combination with a watch movement frame having an external shoulder, a ring surrounding said frame, having an internal shoulder cooperating with the frame shoulder, and having an external shoulder, a case having a shoulder to cooperate with said external ring shoulder, and having an opposed bolt-engaging wall, a bolt passing through the ring having an engagement with said wall on one side and having a fulcrum bearing on the ring on its opposite side, and means for pressing said bolt toward the movement frame Within the ring, such fulcrum bearing being opposed to the shoulders of the ring, whereby such pressure on the bolt causes the ring shoulders to be forced into tight engagement with the movement frame and the case respectively.

4. In a watch, the combination of a case center having annular side walls, a movement plate fitting freely within one of said walls, a ring having an internal shoulder adapted to bear on the edge of said plate at the inner side thereof and having also an axial bearing on the case center, and a binder connected with said plate, passing across said ring into engagement with the side wall of the case center opposite to the one within which said plate lies, and so hearing on the ring as to hold the same in engagement with the plate and with the case center.

5. In a watch, the combination of a movement frame, a ring surrounding said frame with a continuous annular bearing on the inner face of the front plate of said frame, and having an opening contained wholly between its edges, a case center surrounding the movement frame and ring, and on which the ring has an annular bearing, a lever binder passing through said opening into an internal recess in the case center, with a bearing at the side next to said front plate against a wall of the said opening and a bearing at its other side against the case center, and means for forcing the inner side of the binder toward the said front plate.

6. In a watch, the combination of a case center having annular walls at its opposite sides, a watch movement plate adapted to lie freely in the opening surrounded by one of said walls, a ring having an end bearing on the inner surface of said wall and having an internal shoulder bearing on the edge of the plate, locking bolts or levers passing across said ring in engagement therewith and having their outer ends bearing against the side wall of the case center opposite to that against which the ring bears, and means for connecting said bolts with the movement plate and drawing the inner ends of the bolts toward the plate about their points of engagement with the ring, whereby the outer end of the bolt is crowded against the case center, the ring is forced into close bearing with the case center, and the movement plate is forced against the ring.

7. The combination of a watch case center, a movement frame, a ring surrounding the frame and contained mainly within the case center, and common means for securing the movement frame, ring, and case center together in rigid connection arranged to exert pressure axially of the watch simultaneously on said frame, ring and case center, said means passing through the ring intermediate the opposite edges thereof, both edges of the ring being continuous over the portions thereof through which said connecting means pass.

8. The combination of a watch movement frame, a ring surrounding said frame having a transverse opening, a case center surrounding the ring having a shoulder arranged to bear against a part of said ring, and having a second shoulder opposed to the first-named shoulder, and a fastening means connected with said frame, passing through the ring and bearing against the second named shoulder of said case center thereby producing pressure between the ring and the first-named shoulder.

9. The combination of a watch movement frame, a ring surrounding said frame having a transverse opening, such opening being located between the end edges of the ring, and such edges extending continuously over said opening, a case center surrounding the ring having a shoulder arranged to bear against a part of said ring, and having a second shoulder opposed to the first-named shoulder, and a fastening means connected with said frame, passing through the ring and bearing against the second named shoulder of said case center thereby producing pressure between the ring and the first named shoulder.

In testimony whereof I have afliXed my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN W. RUSHTON.

Witnesses:

THOMAS B001, LEONARD B. PosT.

Uopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. O. 

